E-mail this storyTuesday, May 13, 2008
Goshen College mourns with Chinese friends after Sichuan Province earthquake
Media coverage
- VIDEO: Michiana connection to China quake. WNDU-16. 5.13.08.
- College, local family seek China quake updates. The Goshen News. 5.13.08.
HOW TO HELP
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), which sends people, food and material goods to communities recovering from war and natural disasters, plans to provide relief services to ease the suffering in China. An aid fund also is expected to be established this week.
Eight MCC workers are serving as English teachers at universities in the affected areas of Sichuan province and Chongquing municipality. All have been accounted for, and none were harmed in the earthquake, according to Kathleen Suderman, an MCC representative in Beijing. MCC is monitoring the humanitarian needs created by the earthquake in anticipation of a possible relief response, Suderman said.
Donations may be made online at www.mcc.org/donate or at any MCC office. The MCC Great Lakes office is at 1013 Division Street, Goshen, IN, 46528 and can be reached by e-mail at GreatLakesOffice@mcc.org or calling (574) 534-4133.
GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College is mourning the loss of life and devastation from China’s worst earthquake in three decades. The college has sent students to a university in Chengdu, China, for 25 years as part of its Study-Service Term program and was the first U.S. college to arrange an undergraduate exchange with the People’s Republic of China in 1980.
Since a magnitude-7.9 earthquake hit the Sichuan Province, of which Chengdu is the capital city, on May 12, Goshen College Director of International Education Tom Meyers has been reaching out to friends the college has made in the area.
“We were very saddened by the news of the terrible earthquake, the lives lost and the damage to this country we have such a strong connection with,” said Meyers. “We pray for their safety and ability to recover from such significant losses.”
Meyers received notice from Yang Tianqing, the assistant director of the foreign affairs office at Sichuan Normal University, that all teachers and students are safe at the university, where Goshen sent students. Tianqing wrote, “The building where you stayed shook wildly. We all rushed out of the building. Yesterday evening many faculty and students stayed outside.”
When the earthquake occurred, Goshen College Director Emeritus of International Education Wilbur Birky was in Chengdu to give lectures, though he is safe.
One Goshen College student is from Chengdu, China. Junior Yicong Li, a molecular biology/biochemistry and chemistry double major, reports that he has heard from his family and they are safe.
There have been 158 Chinese scholars from the Sichuan Province who have studied at Goshen College as part of an educational exchange with Sichuan Provincial Education Commission. Meyers has not heard the status of all of them yet.
Meyers is also assessing what impact the earthquake disaster may have on the college’s Study-Service Term (SST) program in China, as a group of students is scheduled to go in late August. The students are planning to be located in Nanchong at China West Normal University, which is located in eastern Sichuan Province. “We have heard that all is well there,” Meyers said.
Editors: For more information about this news release contact either Thomas J. Meyers, Goshen College director of international education, at (574) 535-7346 or tomjm@goshen.edu or Jodi H. Beyeler, Goshen College news bureau director, at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.
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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.
